Well, the collision of politics and the entertainment industry is quite common, as their expressions impact the masses. Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón recently won the Best Actress Award for her 2024 musical crime comedy film Emilia Pérez at the Cannes Film Festival. She shared this award jointly with her co-stars, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Zoe Saldaña, making her the first openly trans actor to win a major prize at Cannes.
Following her victory, the actress filed a complaint against French far-right politician Marion Marechal, alleging “sexist insult due to one’s gender identity.”
The charges stem from a post on X where Marechal, who is currently campaigning for the far-right Reconquête party in European elections, commented on Gascón’s win at Cannes. Marechal stated, “It is, therefore, a man who receives in Cannes the prize for… best actress. The progress for the left wing is the erasing of women and mothers.”
The rancorous post sparked outrage within the LGBTQ community following Gascón and six other LGBTQ groups lodging complaints on Monday for “transphobic insult.”
Speaking to Variety, Etienne Deshoulières, the lawyer representing both Gascón and the LGBTQ organizations, said Gascón took legal action against Marechal to support the joint complaint filed by the six activist groups and to ensure Marechal could be condemned. As an established actress in the industry, Gascón’s stance adds significant weight to the overall agenda of combating transphobia.
Since the complaint has been filed against Marechal, she could be sentenced to one-year imprisonment and fined €30,000 if she’s found guilty of transphobic insult and €3,750 if she’s charged with “sexist insult due to one’s gender identity.”
Deshoulières, who specializes in defending the rights of transgender people, explained that the legal notion of “sexist insult” was extended to protect transgender people in April 2023. He said he took the initiative of contacting Gascón after the first complaint had been filed by the LGBTQ organizations. He said that she was “very friendly and understood immediately what was at stake. You could tell from her speech that she had endured a lot of discrimination, and she had predicted that her win would stir transphobic comments on social media today and tomorrow.”
Who is Karla Sofía Gascón?
Karla Sofía Gascón is a 52-year-old Spanish actress. She has appeared in several telenovelas and films, including El Señor de los Cielos (2013) and The Noble Family (2013). With her 2024 film Emilia Pérez, she became the first openly trans actor to win a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Upon winning the joint best actress prize at Cannes, Gascón delivered a tearful speech and dedicated it to all trans people “who suffer and must keep faith that change is possible.”
As for her recent film Emilia Pérez, Gascón plays the titular character, a woman who is tasked with assisting an escaped Mexican cartel leader in undergoing sex reassignment surgery to both evade the authorities and affirm her gender.
The film premiered on May 18, 2024, at the 77th Cannes Film Festival and was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or in its main competition section, where it won the Jury Prize and its female ensemble won the Best Actress award. Following its critically acclaimed world premiere, the movie was acquired by Netflix for the U.S. and the U.K.
